Dover Listens sessions comments, material being compiled for city and school officials

Saturday

Feb 15, 2014 at 3:15 AM

By Kimberley Haaskhaas@fosters.com

DOVER — Michele Holt-Shannon of Dover Listens said the materials collected at three community forums on the topic of education are being compiled by The Carsey Institute at the University of New Hampshire.

Holt-Shannon, who is a co-chair of the organization, hopes to share the final report with the City Council and School Board once it is completed.

Altogether more than 200 people participated in “Strong Schools, Strong Community” recently. They came from all walks of life and talked about issues ranging from the use of buildings to student mental health.

Holt-Shannon said education was the first “big issue” topic the organization has addressed. Since its founding in 2010, residents have told Dover Listens members that there needs to be an opportunity for people to talk about education in the structured, safe setting her organization can provide.

“The participants said it was a very productive conversation because we don’t all agree,” Holt-Shannon said after the last session, held at Dover Middle School. “The conversation about education in town was this false ‘for or against’ thing when really it is so much more complicated than that.”

Holt-Shannon said that at the final forum on Feb. 8 participants had the opportunity to add to the list of concerns already brought up in the first two sessions. Then they split up into groups and dug into at least two issues, recommending action steps that could be used to remedy problems.

“I am looking forward to seeing the results,” Holt-Shannon said. “It was a pretty nice mix of people and more students participated on Saturday.”